On Oil Prices: Shaheen Doesn't Get It
Editorial
The Union Leader
August 4, 2008
In summary, not a single point in Jeanne Shaheen's energy plan would lower oil prices or significantly increase domestic production. And one would probably increase gasoline prices.
Meanwhile, she continues to oppose the best and quickest way to lower oil prices: open the outer continental shelf to drilling.
If you think about it, it really is incredible that on the most pressing issue of the day, Jeanne Shaheen has no solution. She should go back to the drawing board and try again. She's still got a few months until the election; maybe she'll come up with something.
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Another View Of The NH Senate Race
Hotline On Call Blog
July 28, 2008
Courtesy of Concord Monitor Managing Editor Ari Richter, who sees a Granite State electorate that's largely undecided in the state's Senate rematch between GOP Sen. John Sununu and Jeanne Shaheen, a discussion of the latest UNH Survey Center poll.
Richter remarks that instead of viewing the race as tightened, Shaheen had a four-point advantage in the most recent survey, one could conclude that the race is very much in flux because most voters are focused on the presidential.
Per Richter:
UNH poll: Sununu 14, Shaheen 14 (and Undecided 72); That's an alternative headline on the U.S. Senate portion (pdf) of the latest UNH Survey Center poll. As in:
* Definite Sununu 12%
* Lean Sununu 2%
* Undecided 72%
* Lean Shaheen 4%
* Definite Shaheen 10%
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Sununu Closes Gap In Latest Granite State Poll
Shira Toeplitz
Roll Call
July 23, 2008
Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) has significantly narrowed the once double-digit gap between him and former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D), according to the most recent public poll results in the state.
Shaheen led Sununu, 46 percent to 42 percent, with 10 percent undecided, in the latest Granite State Poll by the University of New Hampshire. This survey of 475 likely voters, taken July 11-20 with a margin of error of 4.5 percent, showed the smallest margin between the two candidates in any public poll this cycle.
Sununu had trailed Shaheen by double digits in different surveys, including those performed by the university. In the April Granite Status Poll, Shaheen led Sununu 52 percent to 40 percent, with 7 percent undecided.
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Shaheen's Economics: Markets Are wrong, She's Right
Editorial
The Union Leader
May 30, 2008
Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, running for Senate, proposes halting the trading of oil and restricting the trading of some agricultural commodities on the futures markets.
She calls trading of oil futures "the Enron loophole" and claims that its sole function is to drive up prices and corporate profits. What utter nonsense.
Speculators make money (and often lose it) by taking on risk. They take that risk from hedgers, including farmers, who opt for price stability (and immediate cash) by selling contracts for future delivery. Shaheen would restrict the cash available to farmers and other sellers by reducing the supply of speculators.
Shaheen suggests that items have natural prices that are "artificially" driven up by futures trading. How does she know what the natural price of oil or wheat is? The government cannot decide that. Futures markets help with what economists call "price discovery" by helping determine an item's value.
Shaheen would have us believe that speculation in oil futures is a new development that must be stopped. But oil futures have been traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange since 1983.
Shaheen's proposals, which are identical to the Democratic Party's talking points, are based in economic ignorance. They are presented as a justification for supporting the farm bill, in which they were included, but were really yet another reason to oppose that economically disastrous legislation.
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Citizens United Ad Praises Sununu On Internet Taxes
Shira Toeplitz
Roll Call
May 30, 2008
Sen. John Sununu (R-N.H.) is getting some help from a conservative third-party group running favorable advertisements in his state. The first-term Senator faces a challenging rematch against former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D) in November.
Citizens United on Friday launched a television advertisement, "Innovation," hailing Sununu's efforts to keep the Internet from taxation.
"Who could have guessed how the Internet would change our lives?" an announcer asks in the ad. "But while we dream of even more innovation, some politicians dream of more taxation. Fortunately, Senator John Sununu leads the battle in Washington to defeat Internet taxation schemes. Sununu helped deliver the 2007 Internet tax moratorium. And he's pushing to keep the Internet tax free permanently."
The ad will air for an undisclosed period of time. Shaheen's campaign is already airing a television advertisement -- a biographical spot reintroducing her to voters.
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Disingenuous Shaheen
NRSC Press Office
April 2, 2008
Democrat Senate candidate's cover up scheme
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Failed former Governor and Democrat Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen is back to her old tricks. Today, Shaheen is attempting to mislead voters about her record on taxes by blaming Washington for the current state of New Hampshire's economy.
In an op-ed in today's New Hampshire Union Leader, Shaheen argues that it's the failed policies of Washington that are the underlying reason why "... New Hampshire families fell further and further behind...". (New Hampshire Union Leader, 4/2/08)
Shaheen continues by noting, "We need new leadership in Washington to take our country in a new direction. In the U.S. Senate, I'll fight to restore the middle class and make the economy work for New Hampshire families again…". (New Hampshire Union Leader, 4/2/08)
Oh really?
So Shaheen's tax increases have nothing to do with what she calls "the crisis facing middle-class families" that "has been years in the making"? (New Hampshire Union Leader, 4/2/08)
As for Washington and the tax cuts Shaheen's op-ed calls "failed economic policies of the Bush administration" -- Shaheen herself supported them in 2002. The Hartford Courant even reported, "In New Hampshire, Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, locked in a tight race with Rep. John E. Sununu, praised the Bush tax cuts." (Hartford Courant, 11/8/02)
Is the new direction Shaheen wants to take the country in similar to the direction she took New Hampshire in? In 1999, Shaheen signed a statewide property tax -- the FIRST STATEWIDE TAX in New Hampshire.
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Sullying Vesta Roy: The New Shaheen Playbook?
Editorial
The Union Leader
March 23, 2008
Were she here today, we think the late Vesta Roy of Salem would be appalled that the woman who followed her as New Hampshire's second female governor, Jeanne Shaheen, would allow her political party to play such petty, distasteful politics as are being practiced against U.S. Sen. John Sununu and his family. ...
A woman in attendance told us how upset she was that the Democratic Party had sent an operative to the event in an attempt to film Sen. Sununu. There were also picketers outside.
This kind of "opposition research," whereby a camera is constantly stuck in the face of a political foe hoping to catch him or her in some verbal gaffe, is now the norm for many campaigns, in many states, at many events.
That is fair game for candidates appearing in forums to answer the public's questions. Today's savvy media generations are pretty well-used to such things. But the Vesta Roy event was not such a forum. It was an event meant to thank a well-respected, devoted family for its service and to do so in a manner befitting the woman whose name is the embodiment of such service.
For Democrats to disrupt that kind of event with their ever-lowering tactics is shameful. For Jeanne Shaheen not to denounce it is most disappointing.
But we expect more of the same this year.
Despite having settled a lawsuit with Republicans over a GOP rogue operative, espicable vote-blocking effort of nearly six years ago, the Democrats remain bent on dragging Sen. Sununu's good name into that issue. Democrat U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes and his party are spending your tax dollars in a blatant attempt to revive the matter in time for the Sununu-Shaheen election.
A lot of old time New Hampshire officials, Democrat and Republican alike, would be disgusted.
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Shaheen Starts Out: 2 False Statements & 1 Retraction
Marshall Cobleigh
NH Insider Blog
October 2, 2007
Jeanne Shaheen's campaign is off to a typical shady start. In her announcement speech there are at least two false statements: She claimed that her record as Governor "did it all while still balancing the budget and holding the line on taxes and we want to get back to fiscal accountability"
The facts are that it took 79 governors two hundred years to bring State spending to $1 Billion. In six years as governor Jeanne Shaheen doubled state spending up to a whopping $2 Billion. Is that the type of fiscal accountability she wants to bring to Washington?
As for her claim of a we did it with a balanced budget do you remember when she left office with an estimated deficit of $300 Million. Craig Benson whittled that down before the end of the fiscal year but her claim of leaving the state with a balanced budget is clearly false.
As for her alleged holding the line on taxes remember Jeanne Shaheen imposed the first broad based statewide property tax and fought vigorously for a statewide sales tax. It was the legislature that stopped the state sales tax not Jeanne Shaheen.
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